Will Johnson crash and burn or win the Brickyard?

Sunday

For Jimmie Johnson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is either cruel or kind – no middle ground.

For Jimmie Johnson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is either cruel or kind – no middle ground.

The two-time defending Sprint Cup champion once wrecked so hard here he was knocked unconscious in a moving car. He’s also been on fire several times.

In three of his six races at this track, he’s finished 36th or worse.

But in 2006, he won at the Brickyard for the first time.

“I crash, catch on fire, then come back and do well,” Johnson said. “I crashed and caught on fire last year so it’s our turn to do well this year.”

It certainly has started out that way. Johnson will start from the pole at 1 p.m. Central time today for the 15th running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Because of the difficulties he has had at IMS, Johnson is trying to attract all good karma this weekend.

“Every mental coach in the country right now is going to love to hear this, but positive thoughts bring positive things,” Johnson said. “We are off to a good start so hopefully we don’t find any negativity out there.”

Johnson’s 181.763 mph lap came from the 19th position in the qualifying order and knocked Ryan Newman, who had gone out second, off the pole.

Newman eventually slotted at third, behind Mark Martin’s 181.393 lap.

Some of this talk about positive outlook came from Johnson’s despondency at losing the last Sprint Cup race at Joliet two weeks ago.

Johnson was passed by Kyle Busch on the final restart of that race and felt like he literally gave the victory away.

“I was really mad at myself,” he said. “There was no one to blame but myself for losing that race. I ran Kyle down, passed him, and drove away, had a restart at the end and made two mistakes. For days after that, I kicked myself. Then as I knew I was coming to Indy and getting my mind ready to come race here, I started kicking myself again.”

Winning the pole for one of the biggest races on the schedule helps somewhat.

“But God, I hope roles are reversed at the end of this thing,” he said. “I want to get (him) back the same way – and that is out of respect for him.”

Busch will have to run Johnson down in order to do that. The points leader is starting 19th in row 10.

“I’m not very happy about my run,” Busch said. “I missed three of the four corners – maybe all four of them. Wee didn’t have a very fast car (Friday) and we’re trying to make the most of today. I guess we’ll take it because we have to and we’ll go on to (race day).”

Defending race winner Tony Stewart will start 14th, the same starting spot from which he won his second Brickyard a year ago.

“Track position always is really important here,” said Stewart. “If you can get up there early and stay up there the rest of the day (as he did last year) you can get yourself in a position to win. But you have to get up there before about halfway through the race.”

Four-time winner Jeff Gordon starts fifth.

“We got everything we could out of it and it’s still a good lap, but it has to be perfect,” Gordon said. “You have to hit four perfect corners and (Johnson) did.”

Caterpillar driver Dave Blaney was the slowest of the cars which completed their qualifying attempts. Blaney ran 173.987 but will start ahead of Regan Smith, who hit the wall during his run.

“We’re struggling,” Blaney said. “We’re trying some new stuff. (Friday) when practice started, I thought we were in pretty good shape. Then we kept getting looser and looser and we couldn’t even make a mock (qualifying) run because we were so loose. Same thing today – we couldn’t even make a corner without the car wanting to spin out.”

PIT STOPS: Sam Hornish Jr. and Patrick Carpentier joined the list of drivers who have competed in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard. … Former winner Bill Elliott was among four drivers who did not make the race. Also missing the field were Johnny Sauter, Tony Raines and Stanton Barrett. … Terry Labonte got the champion’s provisonal.